The effect of vibrations on heterogeneous fluids: Some studies in weightlessness

Under weightlessness, the effect of harmonic vibrations can easily induce average motions in fluids with density inhomogeneities. We will consider more particularly pure fluids near their gas–liquid critical point, where the temperature variation of all important parameters (e.g. interfacial tension, density difference) follows universal, scaling laws. We will thus study, below the critical point, the ordering of the gas–liquid interfaces (at equilibrium and during the phase separation) and, above the critical point, some thermovibrational instabilities. These studies have been performed in the Russian MIR station and in the MiniTexus and Maxus rockets of ESA and under magnetic compensation of gravity on earth.     

Near-critical fluids under microgravity : status of the eseme program and perspectives for the iss

Started 16 years ago, the ESEME program has led to a number of important findings. We note a simple and unified view of phase transitions, which has been applied to the development of biological patterns, and a very fast thermalization mode that we coined the “piston effect”. This effect has been applied to control the cryogenic reservoirs of the Ariane 5 rocket. All these findings have been obtained thanks to the good coordination of the ESA and CNES space facilities and the construction of high technology experimental modules. The future of the program is linked to the CNES DECLIC facility and the ESA Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL). DECLIC has been designed to increase the temperature regulation above the critical point of water (550 K) so as to investigate chemical reactions under conditions of supercritical water, and in relation to the promising applications of waste treatment by supercritical oxidation. Thanks to the construction of a special vibrational Experiment Container for FSL, the thermal and mechanical behavior of fluids under forced vibration can be investigated. The results of such studies will help to estimate the effect of g-jitter on fluids, and control gases and liquids in space.     

The loss of stability in ground based experiments in liquid bridges

In this study our primary goal is to investigate the loss of stability of the steady convection in deformable liquid bridges. Definitely, the deformation plays an important role in the transition process from the steady axi-symmetric 2-D basic state to the 3-D periodical one. As it was shown experimentally by many researchers, the critical Marangoni number is very sensitive to the volume of liquid.

It seems to be proved^1–4, that the critical wave number for high Prandtl fluids (for example, silicone oil of different viscosities. Pr > 50) is m = 1 for aspect ratios Γ = height/radius ≥ 1.0 regardless of the free surface shape. But the data from our last experiments show, that by changing surrounding conditions around the liquid bridge we can change the critical wave number. Particularly, by placing the liquid bridge of diameter 2r = 6mm into another cylindrical volume of the diameter 2R = 12mm kept at constant temperature, the critical mode is switched from m = 1 to m = 2.     

粉末燃料冲压发动机研究进展

粉末燃料冲压发动机采用高能金属或硼粉为燃料,兼具液体燃料冲压发动机推力可调、比冲高及固体火箭冲压发动机安全可靠、结构简单等优点,尤其是固体/粉末或液体/粉末燃料组合冲压发动机,粉末燃料的加入不仅可大幅提高传统冲压发动机的比冲等性能,还能改善并增加其原有功能,是极具发展潜力的新一代导弹动力装置之一。针对粉末燃料冲压发动机及其相关研究领域的发展现状进行了概述分析,并以此梳理出粉末燃料供给、发动机燃烧组织、发动机点火等粉末燃料冲压发动机主要关键技术,同时对发动机技术提出了高性能粉末燃料研究、冲压空气作为驱动流化气可行性研究、发动机快速响应和环境适应潜力及工作可靠性研究等几点研究展望。通过对粉末燃料冲压发动机相关研究技术进行综述梳理,明确了其研究的重点和难点,为发展高性能冲压发动机提供了一定参考。     

Gender differences in organ density in a rat simulated microgravity model

Research investigating the physiological effects of microgravity on the human body has demonstrated a shift of body fluids in actual spaceflight and in simulated Earth-based microgravity models in both males and females, possibly causing many deleterious physiological effects. Twenty-five anatomically normal female (NF) and 20 ovariectomized (OE) Fischer 344 rats were randomly selected to be in an experimental (1 h of 45 degrees head-down tilt, 45HDT) or control (1 h of prone position) group. At the end of the hour experimental period, the density of the brain, lungs, heart, liver, and left and right kidneys were measured using spiral computed tomography (SCT) while the rats remained in their experimental positions. A sub-group of OE rats (N=6) was administered estrogen replacement therapy on a daily basis (5 micrograms/kg body weight, s.c.) for 4 days and then underwent 1 h of 45HDT and SCT analysis at one day, 2 days, and 5 days to determine if estrogen replacement therapy would alter organ densities. Our data demonstrate that 1 h of 45HDT produced significant increases (p<0.05) in the organ densities of the brain, liver, left kidney, and lung of the OE female group compared to their prone controls. However, only the brain density was significantly increased in the NF group. Estrogen replacement therapy caused a significant decrease in brain organ density at the 5 day time point compared to the 24 h time point. We conclude that estrogen plays a role in fluid distribution in a rat 45HDT model.     

液氧密度测量技术研究

液氧/煤油发动机地面试验中,液氧质量流量通过测量体积流量乘以密度来获得,密度测量的准确度直接影响质量流量的测量准确度。影响液氧密度的主要因素是密度的计算公式和温度测量的准确性。介绍了液氧密度的获取途径、计算方法,对影响密度的主要技术问题,特别是液氧温度测量技术进行了深入研究,提出采用测温法计算密度,测温点选在涡轮流量计附近,传感器选用铠装裸露式A级铂电阻,同时推荐了密度计算公式。     

Drilling systems for extraterrestrial subsurface exploration

Drilling consists of 2 processes: breaking the formation with a bit and removing the drilled cuttings. In rotary drilling, rotational speed and weight on bit are used to control drilling, and the optimization of these parameters can markedly improve drilling performance. Although fluids are used for cuttings removal in terrestrial drilling, most planetary drilling systems conduct dry drilling with an auger. Chip removal via water-ice sublimation (when excavating water-ice-bound formations at pressure below the triple point of water) and pneumatic systems are also possible. Pneumatic systems use the gas or vaporization products of a high-density liquid brought from Earth, gas provided by an in situ compressor, or combustion products of a monopropellant. Drill bits can be divided into coring bits, which excavate an annular shaped hole, and full-faced bits. While cylindrical cores are generally superior as scientific samples, and coring drills have better performance characteristics, full-faced bits are simpler systems because the handling of a core requires a very complex robotic mechanism. The greatest constraints to extraterrestrial drilling are (1) the extreme environmental conditions, such as temperature, dust, and pressure; (2) the light-time communications delay, which necessitates highly autonomous systems; and (3) the mission and science constraints, such as mass and power budgets and the types of drilled samples needed for scientific analysis. A classification scheme based on drilling depth is proposed. Each of the 4 depth categories (surface drills, 1-meter class drills, 10-meter class drills, and deep drills) has distinct technological profiles and scientific ramifications.     

热力学效应对低温诱导轮旋转汽蚀影响的数值研究

诱导轮是液体火箭发动机中提高涡轮泵性能的关键部件,而旋转汽蚀是引起诱导轮故障的原因之一。低温液体发生汽蚀时会产生大量的潜热,对汽蚀流动产生重要的影响。利用基于Rayleigh—Plesset方程的混合流体模型,并考虑了汽蚀热力学效应,对诱导轮二维叶栅中的低温旋转汽蚀现象进行了数值分析。计算结果表明,考虑热力学效应时,产生旋转汽蚀的入口压力值下降;低温条件下的温度变化对超同步旋转汽蚀没有影响,而对次同步旋转汽蚀影响显著。     

Thermocapillary simulation of single bubble dynamics in zero gravity

The lack of significant buoyancy effects in zero gravity conditions poses an issue with fluid transfer in a stagnant liquid. In this paper bubble movement in a stagnant liquid is analysed and presented numerically using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach. The governing continuum conservation equations for two phase flow are solved using the commercial software package Ansys-Fluent v.13 and the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method is used to track the liquid/gas interface in 2D and 3D domains. The simulation results are in reasonable agreement with the earlier experimental observations, the VOF algorithm is found to be a valuable tool for studying the phenomena of gas–liquid interaction. The flow is driven via Marangoni influence induced by the temperature difference which in turn drives the bubble from the cold to the hot region. A range of thermal Reynolds (Re_T) and Marangoni numbers (Ma_T) are selected for the numerical simulations, specifically Re_T=13–658 and Ma_T=214–10,721 respectively. The results indicate that the inherent velocity of bubbles decreases with an increase of the Marangoni number, a result that is line with the results of previous space experiments (Kang et al., 2008) [1]. An expression for predicting the scaled velocity of bubble has been derived based on the data obtained in the present numerical study. Some three-dimensional simulations are also performed to compare and examine the results with two-dimensional simulations.     

Ignition of fuel sprays by shock wave mathematical modeling and numerical simulation

The paper presents the results of developing of physical and mathematical model making it possible to take into account the effect of droplets non-uniformity in space and size distribution on ignition conditions for fuel sprays. The influence of condensed phase volume fraction on ignition and combustion of sprays was studied, physical and mathematical models for multi-phase flows, mixture formation and combustion of liquid fuels based on solving Navier–Stokes equations for gas phase accounting for thermal and mechanical interaction with poly-dispersed droplets array. The problems of particulate phase dynamics are regarded accounting for the interaction with gas phase atomization, evaporation and combustion.It was shown that depending on droplet size distribution and aerosol cloud density different flow scenarios were possible.Several ignition zones could be formed behind incident shock wave depending on mixture properties and initiation parameters. The possibility of numerical simulation permitting variation of definite parameters only made it possible to explain this fact.     

Evaporation and ignition of droplets in combustion chambers modeling and simulation

Computer simulation of liquid fuel jet injection into heated atmosphere of combustion chamber, mixture formation, ignition and combustion need adequate modeling of evaporation, which is extremely important for the curved surfaces in the presence of strong heat and mass diffusion fluxes. Combustion of most widely spread hydrocarbon fuels takes place in a gas-phase regime. Thus, evaporation of fuel from the surface of droplets turns to be one of the limiting factors of the process as well. The problems of fuel droplets atomization, evaporation being the key factors for heterogeneous reacting mixtures, the non-equilibrium effects in droplets atomization and phase transitions will be taken into account in describing thermal and mechanical interaction of droplets with streaming flows. In the present paper processes of non-equilibrium evaporation of small droplets will be discussed. As it was shown before, accounting for non-equilibrium effects in evaporation for many types of widely used liquids is crucial for droplet diameters less than 100 μm, while the surface tension effects essentially manifest only for droplets below 0.1 μm. Investigating the behavior of individual droplets in a heated air flow allowed to distinguish two scenarios for droplet heating and evaporation. Small droplets undergo successively heating, then cooling due to heat losses for evaporation, and then rapid heating till the end of their lifetime. Larger droplets could directly be heated up to a critical temperature and then evaporate rapidly. Droplet atomization interferes the heating, evaporation and combustion scenario. The scenario of fuel spray injection and self-ignition in a heated air inside combustion chamber has three characteristic stages. At first stage of jet injection droplets evaporate very rapidly thus cooling the gas at injection point, the liquid jet is very short and changes for a vapor jet. At second stage liquid jet is becoming longer, because evaporation rate decreases due to decrease of temperature. But combustion of fuel vapor begins which brings to increase of heat flux to droplets and accelerates evaporation. The length of the liquid jet decreases again and remains constant slightly oscillating.     

新一代运载火箭增压技术研究

随着新一代运载火箭研制的开展,新型120t级高压补燃液氧煤油发动机将得到广泛的使用,该发动机采用的推进剂贮箱增压系统设计被列为新一代运载火箭研制的重大关键技术之一。在对国内外主要液体运载火箭增压方案进行分析的基础上对120t级液氧煤油发动机的贮箱增压系统进行了研究,提出了液氧贮箱采用压力传感器与电磁阀组合的常温氦气加温增压,煤油贮箱采用压力传感器与电磁阀组合的常温氦气增压方案,并针对液氧贮箱采用常温氦气加温增压的方案开展了理论分析和全尺寸系统级试验研究。理论分析和试验结果表明,该增压方案可行。     

Measurement of the variation of interfacial tension with temperature between immiscible liquids of equal density

For the measurement of interfacial tensions between liquids of equal densities, methods like drop weight, Wilhelmy plate etc. fail.A method is developed using a liquid bridge between a glass tip and a freely hanging piece of density higher than that of the fluids.The volume of liquid bridge that can sustain a piece of given weight cannot exceed some maximal value. This maximal volume is determined experimentally.A computer program makes it possible to tabulate the maximal volumes of the liquid bridge as a function of the interfacial tension for a given tip and metal piece.The program uses iteratively the circle segment approximation for the calculation of the meridian curve given by Kelvin.Results are given for the system aqueous ethanol/paraffin oil of equal densities.     

Role of interface deformations in Benard-Marangoni instability

This work is concerned with a linear analysis of natural thermoconvection in a two-layer system formed by a liquid surmounted by an upper immiscible gas layer (Bénard-Marangoni problem). Emphasis is put on the role of the air layer on the thermoconvective instability. It is shown that the motion inside the gas phase can be disregarded provided its thickness is smaller than the thickness of the liquid layer. The gas can then be modelled as a purely conductive medium. Another important problem discussed here is the role of surface deformations on the onset of convection. In that respect, the use of Boussinesq's approximation is discussed and its limits of validity are specified. The main results are the following. First, it is concluded that overstability cannot be observed in ordinary fluids under realistic experimental conditions. Besides, it is shown that, among the relatively larger number of parameters appearing in the problem, the viscosity is by far the most important. Moreover, new dimensionless numbers are introduced to better apprehend the physical context. The experimental conditions required to observe the surface zero-wave number instability are also determined, as well as the conditions under which gravity effects may be neglected on earth. Finally it is examined under which circumstances the interface can be considered as remaining flat.     

固液火箭冲压发动机燃烧室流场数值仿真

固液火箭冲压发动机通过固液两种燃料匹配工作,相比传统的固体火箭冲压发动机和液体燃料冲压发动机具有较为明显的优势.基于离散相模型和单步反应模型,采用Fluent 对设计点飞行参数下,不同结构和不同工况条件下的燃烧室两相反应流场进行了数值仿真.结果表明,燃气发生器喷管参数和进气道进气角度主要影响空气与燃气流的撞击以及头部区...     

Microgravity gas–liquid flow through packed beds

Analysis of possible physical mechanism involved in the process of transition of bubble-to-pulse flow regime in cocurrent gas–liquid flow through a packed bed in microgravity demonstrates that the transition can be described by the key dimensionless group Suratman number and the ratio of gas to liquid Reynolds numbers. This result establishes a physical basis to the existing empirical transition equation which is also based on the same dimensionless groups. Furthermore, the concepts of driving-to-resistance force ratio and pore-level bubble flow mechanism have been utilized to explore the basis of the existing modified friction factor correlation for two-phase flow through a packed bed under microgravity.     

Simulation of rocket plume and lunar dust using DSMC method

When lunar modules land on the Moon, dust impingement on the lunar module components and deposition on the thermal and optical surfaces would cause many serious problems. The emphasis of this research is on simulating the interaction of rocket plume and lunar dust using the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method. The method is extended to model the movement and collision stages of rarefied plume gas and dust particles, including three collisional mechanisms: molecule–molecule, molecule–particle and particle–particle collisions. The reflection of gas molecules on the particle surface is computed by an indirect approach based on the coordinate transformation. Neighboring-cell contact detection scheme is applied to check for contacts between all possible particle pairs. The simulation results show that the acceleration of dust particle is mostly determined by the parameters of plume field. In the computational regions with larger gas density and velocity the particles can be accelerated to larger velocity and convected to higher temperature.     

Cooperative research in microgravity sciences during the French manned MIR missions

During the past ten years the French laboratories working in the field of fluids and material sciences had access to regular, long-lasting manned missions onboard the Russian MIR Space Station. Beyond the French scientific program that was performed with the ALICE apparatus, a cooperative research program was developed with DLR, NASA and RSA. This cooperation was based on bartered agreements that included the joint utilization of the instruments onboard the MIR station (ALICE, TITUS furnace from DLR, vibration device from RKK Energia) and the funding of dedicated cartridges (DLR) or thermostats (DLR and NASA), as well as launch services (NASA) by the Cooperating Agencies. We present a review of this program with a particular emphasis on its scientific results and on the progress that has been achieved in science and applications. They covered a large field of condensed matter physics, from material sciences to near-critical and off-critical phase separation kinetics and near critical fluid hydrodynamics (thermoacoustic heat transport and vibrational convection). The high microgravity relevance of all these investigations naturally led to outstanding results that was published in the world's best scientific journals. The analysis of the latest experiments performed during the PEGASUS mission shows they will not be an exception to that evaluation. Off-critical phase separation with NASA, pressure-driven piston effect and equiaxed solidification with DLR, heat transport under calibrated vibrations with RKK Energia, all will be presented. The conclusion will stress the international character of this microgravity research program, the conditions of its success and what can be gained from it in the perspective of the space station utilization.     

Nitrogen fixation on early Mars and other terrestrial planets: experimental demonstration of abiotic fixation reactions to nitrite and nitrate

Understanding the abiotic fixation of nitrogen is critical to understanding planetary evolution and the potential origin of life on terrestrial planets. Nitrogen, an essential biochemical element, is certainly necessary for life as we know it to arise. The loss of atmospheric nitrogen can result in an incapacity to sustain liquid water and impact planetary habitability and hydrological processes that shape the surface. However, our current understanding of how such fixation may occur is almost entirely theoretical. This work experimentally examines the chemistry, in both gas and aqueous phases, that would occur from the formation of NO and CO by the shock heating of a model carbon dioxide/nitrogen atmosphere such as is currently thought to exist on early terrestrial planets. The results show that two pathways exist for the abiotic fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere into the crust: one via HNO and another via NO(2). Fixation via HNO, which requires liquid water, could represent fixation on a planet with liquid water (and hence would also be a source of nitrogen for the origin of life). The pathway via NO(2) does not require liquid water and shows that fixation could occur even when liquid water has been lost from a planet's surface (for example, continuing to remove nitrogen through NO(2) reaction with ice, adsorbed water, etc.).     

CPL蒸发器多孔芯内传热传质的非稳态数值模拟

基于多孔芯内局部热力学平衡的假设，考虑了Brinkman和Forchheimer对Darcy定律的修正模型，针对简化的物理模型中所包含的气液相区域，建立了二维分层饱和多孔介质模型，以甲醇为工质对CPL，蒸发器毛细多孔芯内的传热传质过程进行非稳态数值模拟。在不同的热负荷条件下预测气液分层界面的形状和位置、系统由初态达到稳态过程的持续时间，讨论压力和温度的分布。由两层饱和模型所得到的计算结果可知．CPL系统在启动时，为避免高热流时液体脱离多孔区而发生干涸，宜采用小负荷启动；采用预热器，改善蒸气的出口条件；增加蒸发器入口处的工质的过冷度，有利于增加CPL系统启动过程和变工况时的稳定性。文中分析结论为CPL系统的优化设计提供参考。